Petrobras 10000 rig to resume work after fatal incident in December

Transocean’s Petrobras 10000 drillship on which an offshore worker died after sustaining a fatal injury in an incident in December 2017 is set to resume work soon.

At the time of the incident, the drillship, owned by Transocean, working for Petrobras, was located in an area of the Gulf known as Walker Ridge 469, about 172 miles south of Port Fourchon, Louisiana.

The deceased, a Spencer Ogden employee working as a floorhand, was taking part in pipe handling operations at the time of his injury, at about 4:45 a.m, December 2, 2017.

In a statement on Wednesday, during a fourth quarter results presentation Transocean CEO Jeremy D. Thigpen said: “We remain saddened by this devastating loss, and we’ll continue to honor the memory of the crew member lost while sharing the industry the lessons that we have learned from this tragedy.

“As you might expect, following such an incident, we immediately shut down all operations on the rig so that Petrobras and Transocean could jointly conduct an investigation and detail a rigorous recovery and return to work plan.”

“Thigpen said the process was taking longer than anticipated to complete, however, he said the right might return to work by the end of the month.”

To remind, the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement in in December issued a safety alert in which regarding the incident, saying that “the deceased was working on the rig floor and positioned between a stanchion, on the port side of the rig floor with his back to the retracting skate, when it moved causing the “loading platform” of the skate to pin him against the stanchion. It was reported that there is approximately a three-inch clearance between the stanchion and the loading platform.”

The incident took place within a rig floor red zone – an area where entry is controlled. Also, as a result of the incident, the safety body issued a safety alert for all the Gulf of Mexico operators, hoping to help prevent the recurrence of a similar incident.